1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner container filling device for pumping toner into a container (referred to as “toner bottle” hereinafter) and acquiring information of the pumped toner at the same time, and a toner production management system provided between a toner production base and a toner container filling base for accepting the information of the pumped toner acquired by the toner container filling device at the toner container filling base via a network and controlling toner production at the toner production base and toner delivery from the toner production base to the toner container filling base.
2. Description of the Related Art
In electrophotographic color image forming apparatuses, such as copiers or printers, a latent image is formed on a photoconductor, and a developing agent called toner is used to develop the latent image into a visible image (toner image); the toner image is transferred to and fused on paper, and finally, an image is formed on the paper.
In such an electrophotographic color image forming apparatus, the toner is contained in a developer that is arranged close to the photoconductor. In the developer, the toner is mixed with specified carriers and the mixture is agitated to charge the toner. The charged toner is transferred to the photoconductor by applying a bias voltage between the developer and the photoconductor, and is accreted on the latent image, thus forming the toner image.
The toner in the developer is consumed along with formation of images on the paper. When the toner is running out, the density of the image formed on the paper decreases, and the image becomes faint and patchy. So it is necessary to supplement the developer with toner. The supplementing of the developer with toner is accomplished by replacing the toner bottle in use with a new toner bottle filled with toner.
Toner is pumped into the toner bottle at toner production bases where manufacturing facilities are installed to produce toner from raw materials. Toner bottles filled with toner are packaged at the production bases, and shipped to shops, and then are distributed to users of image forming apparatuses from the shops.
Usually, a company has a few toner production bases and a relatively large number of shops and users. Usually the toner production bases are located remote from the shops and users. Therefore, when toner is running out, users have to order new toner bottles filled with toner from shops. If toner bottles are out of stock in shops, the shops have to request the toner production bases to deliver new toner bottles. Delivery of toner bottles from toner production bases to shops may take a long time, and users may not be able to use their copiers or printers until the new toner bottles arrive.
In recent years and continuing, along with the rising demand for environmental protection, re-use of toner bottles is being required. When re-using toner bottles, empty toner bottles are transported from users to toner production bases, and re-filled with toner at the toner production bases. However, if the toner production bases are remote from the shops or users, the cost of this process may be excessive.
One way of solving this problem is to provide toner container filling equipment comprising toner containers of large capacities at shops or other places near the users to re-fill the empty toner bottles with toner. This is the so-called “toner container filling base”. By doing this, empty toner bottles may be filled with toner at the toner container filling bases when toner bottles are out of stock at shops. Toner may be transported from the toner production bases regularly to fill the toner containers of large capacities.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-104301 discloses a method for installing at a shop a compact and inexpensive toner container filling device, which is easy to handle and equipped with a toner container of a large capacity, and able to manage the amount of the pumped toner by a computer while the toner container filling device is re-filling an empty toner bottle.
This method makes it possible to re-fill the used toner bottles collected from users at places much closer to the users than the toner production bases, and eliminate the necessity of transporting the empty toner bottles from the shops to the toner production bases and transporting the refilled toner bottles from the toner production bases to the users, and therefore reduce the time and costs of transportation of the empty toner bottles and re-filled toner bottles, and significantly reduce the cost of re-use of the toner bottles. Further, this method makes it possible to produce toner by the exactly required amount.
However, when one toner production base produces toner for many toner container filling bases, which are scattered over a vast area, it is essential to make the toner container filling process at all toner container filling bases efficient, and deliver the desired amount of toner from the toner production base to each toner container filling base at the desired time. To do that, it is necessary to accurately determine the amount of the toner that has been pumped to empty toner bottles frequently or in real time, and according to the obtained result, deliver toner from the toner production base to each toner container filling base before toner at each toner container filling base runs out.
On the other hand, from the view of the toner production base, it is also necessary to determine the amount of toner that has been pumped at each toner container filling base frequently, for example, once a week, or once a month, to ascertain the total amount of toner that has been pumped at all toner container filling bases. The required amount of toner is produced before the amount of toner at the toner production base becomes insufficient.
In other words, it is desired to make the toner container filling process automatic at each toner container filling base, and at the same time collect in real time the information concerning the toner container filling process, for example, the amount of toner that has been pumped at each toner container filling base, and send the information to the toner production base.